City of Houston Climate Action Plan

Working Group Meeting

3/1/2019

What is a Climate Action Plan (CAP)?

• A climate action plan should address the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, adapt to the impacts of climate change and deliver wider social, environmental, and economic benefits.

• Objectives of plan are to:

❖Decrease traffic congestion

❖Improve air quality

❖Provide better access to green space

❖Improve quality of life

❖Reduce energy costs through energy efficiency and renewable energy

❖Increase resilience

Houston Community Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Goals of the Houston CAP • Goal: Lay the foundation for actions that will make the City carbon-neutral by 2050.

Climate Action PlanTechnical Approach

CURB

• Climate action for URBan sustainability (CURB) - scenario planning tool

• The CURB tool is a powerful data-driven scenario planning tool that helps cities make decisions about the future of their energy, transport and waste systems, which will ultimately result in higher greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions.

• CURB helps to analyze the impacts of GHG mitigation initiatives in different scenarios.

Base Year Inventory

Emissions Projections

Policy/Program Sector Sub-sector

Deploy City-wide EV charging network Transportation Electric Personal Vehicles

Procurement of buses take into account air quality and GHG improvements of electric buses

TransportationElectric Buses

Adjust parking fees (congestion pricing) or adjust availability of parking to reduce traffic congestion

TransportationParking Management

Ensure building codes are continually improved and updated over time Building Optimization Codes

Develop voluntary building benchmarking and energy auditing program that complements utility incentive programs

Building Optimization and Decarbonization Clean Energy

Expand single stream recycling program for Houston residents Waste Solid Waste

Continuous improvement of building codes and permitting for solar + battery installations in residential and commercial properties; solar ready homes Decarbonization Renewable Energy

Work with community partners to increase rate of tree planting Decarbonization Green Infrastructure

Implement residential and commercial water conservation program Building Optimization Water

CAP Example Policies and Programs

Climate Action PlanningStructure

Mayor

Decarbonization Work Group

SME

Community/Equity

Building Optimization Work Group

SME

Community/Equity

TransportationWork Group

SME

Community/Equity

Waste and PollutionWork Group

SME

Community/Equity

HARC

COH DepartmentsARA/Office of SustainabilityC40

Communications Partner

Climate Action Planning:Organizational Structure

Thinking Through Climate Action Planning

• This is an example used by C40 to help structure thinking around the Outputs, Outcomes and Impacts of each Action.

• An action is the policy/program in place that will lead to a GHG reduction

Click to add text

Source: C40 Climate Actions Impact Framework

Schedule

Timeline

• February 18th – Working group leads convene sectors and begin work

• March 1st to May 6th – Working Group and Public meetings to identify and discuss CAP actions

• May 15th – Working group leads provides first set of recommendations to City

Program Schedule

Public Workshop Meetings

• The City plans to hold four public workshop meetings.

• This does not preclude individual working group additional meetings.

• These workshops will bring all working groups together in a facilitated environment that will allow for community input via table top discussions.

Planned Meetings:

• March 19th – 6:00 pm Sunnyside Multi-Service Center

• May 2nd – 6:00 pm Northeast Multi-Service Center

Other Meetings being set in the following locations during the months of March to May:

• West Houston - Southwest Multi-Service Center

• East Houston - Magnolia Multi-Service Center or Denver Harbor

• North Houston – Acres Home Multi-Service Center

• Bonus – Metropolitan Multi-Service Center

Thank you! Questions?

Contact Information:

Lara Cottingham

Chief Sustainability Officer

Lara.Cottingham@houstontx.gov

832-393-8503

Learn more:

http:/bit.ly/Houston-CAP

mailto:Lara.Cottingham@houstontx.gov